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A heart for Christy

A woman's brave fight against cancer amid love for her children, husband

By Valerie CranstonSpecial to the Current-Argus

Posted:
11/08/2008 05:20:49 PM MST

This photo of Christy Box is her husband Radell s favorite because he believes it shows her natural beauty inside and out.
(Submitted photo)

Editor's note: The story of Christy Box and her struggle with cancer will be told in two parts. The first is about the fight Christy lost against cancer and the family who never left her side. The second part will tell the story of her palliative care team and the unprecedented pain management that allowed her to spend as much time as she could with her family during her last days.

Christy and Radell Box were just teens when they met cruising the drag in Carlsbad in the mid 1990s. For the next two and a half years they dated, sharing daydreams about getting married, raising a family and building a home on property they frequently visited and hoped to own one day. In July of 1997 they married and subsequently had four children. In 2006, they bought the piece of property they daydreamed about owning and built Christy's dream home as they had planned. Just when it seemed all their dreams had come true, the unimaginable happened. Christy, then 27, was diagnosed with cervical cancer in November of 2006. During the next year and a half she fought the most courageous battle of her life. Christy lost the battle on July 1, 2008, and was laid to rest close to her family on the very property she and Radell daydreamed about as teens. "We actually just got the loan and she got sick; and the day she had her first surgery, the foundation was being poured for the house," said Radell, 32. Following Christy's initial diagnosis, Radell's parents, Radell Sr.

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and Jackie Box, left their home in Nogal to come to Carlsbad to help with Brittany, 11; Cora Lee, 9; Mason, 7; and Cady, 6. "Basically, we came right then and then went back to close up our house," Jackie said, noting their intention to stay as long as needed. After Christy's first surgery, she was sent to Albuquerque, where a radical hysterectomy was performed. She was scheduled for three months of radiation, five days a week and follow-up chemotherapy once a week for two months. They drove back and forth most of the time, keeping the children with them when they could. "She was then checked and told she was all clean," Radell said, noting her last treatment was the end of May or first of June 2007. Two months later in August, Christy started experiencing back pains and went to Albuquerque that September to see a back specialist. "It ended up being cancer," Radell said. Christy had back surgery in February 2008, followed by radiation on her spine and hip. She began having trouble with her bowels due to the previous chemotherapy. Doctors performed a bowel resection and after a month in the hospital, she went home to wait for more scheduled chemotherapy. That's when her face went numb. "The cancer was pretty much everywhere," Radell said, adding she took radiation for another three weeks and was in and out of the hospital. He explained a tumor had grown so fast it fractured her ribs; and after a bowel resection, the only people who could control her pain were the palliative care team from Lakeview Christian Home Hospice. Christy didn't want to be bedridden. She wanted to be with her family. It was important to her to keep life as normal as possible, so she attended baseball and softball games. She was also determined to spend quality time with each of her children. "She didn't slow down, and she always worried about other people instead of herself," Radell said. Jackie recalled how Christy never complained about anything, and how Radell cared for her by himself most of the time. "She was tough and she was all about living her life. As long as she was alert, she was loving everyone else. You've never seen a mom with so much love. She loved her babies and she loved her husband - they were her life. You saw love at a level in this family that we never saw before," said Jan Walterscheid, hospice community education director for Lakeview. "Radell and Christy allowed their children to be every bit a part of this journey. What was so beautiful is they made Christy the center and lived their lives around her," Walterscheid added. Radell said so many people helped it was beyond belief. His parents helped with the children and kept the household running. Stoller Corporation, where Christy worked, was supportive and willing to help. The hospice team went beyond the call to keep Christy pain free. "My mom being here was the biggest help, and so was my sister, Rachel," he said. Christy's palliative care team became her hospice care team two weeks before she died, Walterscheid explained. "Two weeks before she passed, she was still up and moving around," Radell said. He knew he had only a short time to get permits, the property platted and city and county approval to bury Christy on their property. "We had to do a lot of work," he said, noting many helped prepare the property and 30 to 40 people showed up to lay sod around her gravesite before her services. "This whole town is really awesome," he said. Radell made sure Christy's final resting place was just as she had asked. Following a suggestion by a family member, Radell turned a large sandstone rock into a heart headstone for Christy. "I told her what I was doing so she knew what was going on. She always said she didn't want to be in a public cemetery," Radell said. "She told me to put her somewhere close," he added, wiping the tears from his cheeks.

Christy Ann Box, 29, was born Jan. 2, 1979, and died July 1, 2008. The inscription on the sandstone heart headstone her husband Radell made for her reads: True Love In true love the smallest distance is too great and the greatest distance can be bridged. (Submitted photo)